Nihao China!

Well, I am back at it, Ladies and Gentlemen. This time, however, my travels take on a very different flavor – one of fried rice, noodles, and lots of uncertainty. You guessed it, I have arrived in China. If you are wondering why or how, I have taken advantage of a really awesome opportunity that APU's School of Business offers. I am taking three courses here and interning at a non-profit for the next two and a half months. China is a beautiful country, rich in culture and history. From the cultural experiences to the company visits, this is one for the books. 

The first two weeks were spent with the entire study abroad group (about 20 students) at Zhejiang University in the city of Hangzhou. Hangzhou has one of the highest per capita incomes in China, and the university presence draws a lot of international students to the city. The first night, we went to an evening show, where we were marveled by the incredibly talented Chinese performers. 

Thursday, we went to a city called Yiwu. I went to the store the night before to get breakfast for everyone and woke up a bit earlier to have that set up for all 20 of us. We hopped on the bus and drove for about 3 hours. I practiced Mandarin for most of the drive. When we got there, we toured this huge whole sale mall. 200,000 vendors were located in this enormous complex. Agents or retailers will come to these stores in China from all across the world to buy retail items in bulk. This particular store deals mostly with countries in the Middle East, India, and many African countries. It was actually pretty cool and a lot of items you would see sold in many US stores. It is crazy to think about the life of a product and how many places it travels across the supply chain to get to the consumer. 

For lunch, we went into the city and we all got to explore. Most of the guys stopped at McDonalds to get food. But Rachel, Ashlynn, and I followed the Strothers to a Weeger restaurant. Weegers are an ethnic minority in China. They largely come from the North West and are ethnically more Turkish than Chinese and are also largely Muslim. Weeger food is similar to Turkish food and was pretty good. 

We then went to a few other malls and markets and got to see a Chinese Walmart. Walmart is franchised, so it has a strong local presence, which means it is very Chinese. Other than the Walmart sign and a few value price brands, you wouldn’t even recognize that it was Walmart. The low price signs were in red and yellow (which are very lucky colors) and the meat was crazy. Straight up just killed chicken just chilling there for sell as well as fish still in the tanks. In China, your pets and your food can easily be confused. 

Overall, this has been a great experience so far. I am blessed to be here. Though very different, China has so much to offer, and I have so much to learn whilst in this beautiful country.